I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of card games and, in particular, to the field of card games having game elements useful for playing card games and also useful as collectibles.
II. Prior Art
Trading cards are a well-known method for disbursing and collecting information about public figures. For example trading cards representing figures in the entertainment industry can depict music performers or television and movie personalities. A more familiar type of trading card is the well-known baseball card. Baseball cards are provided with a photographic depiction of an athlete along with biographic and statistical information concerning various athletes and teams. Other cards dealing with sports figures are also available and are used by sports enthusiasts for collecting information about athletes and sports teams.
Sales in the sports card industry greatly expanded during the 1980""s. Despite some decline since that period the sports card industry is still a major market. However, new markets have also developed. For example, while cards depicting wars and presidents have been in existence since the 1930""s, in the 1990""s new non-sport cards have effectively tapped into the large youth market. These cards usually have as subject matter comic book or fantasy heroes.
Additionally, trading cards directed to niche markets continue to develop. The sports and non-sports subject matter can be as varied and obscure as women""s bowling, bass fishing, and National Historical Parks. All these card sets and more are produced each year. But the most successful sets are those with wide appeal that contain opportunities to have ongoing content for the cards. This partly accounts for the success of sports cards. However, any type of cards can be used by enthusiasts of the subject matter as trading cards.
Enthusiasts typically exchange trading cards with other enthusiasts in order to obtain cards that are needed to complete sets of related cards or to obtain cards that are not readily available. Collectors can also buy and sell trading cards for their economic and historic value. Trading cards of this type are typically sold through retail game stores and other types of specialty outlets, particularly neighborhood baseball card shops depending, for example, upon the popularity of the individuals depicted thereon. Additionally, since some trading cards are more common than others, the monetary value of a card can depend on its availability. For instance it is known to provide inserts of special cards in many sports card sets. An example would be xe2x80x9cMichael Jordan Golden Hoop Club Card 1:35.xe2x80x9d This information will often appear on the wrapper of the cards.
There is presently no systematic way to determine the scarcity of a card other than background knowledge. The background knowledge may be provided by information available on a wrapper indicating which cards are special inserts that are more rare than the common cards. Alternately, it may be known through knowledge of the subject matter. However, there is no system for identifying the scarcity of cards immediately upon viewing the cards.
Playing cards, as distinguished from trading cards, are easily and readily available. This is especially true of the well-known decks of fifty-two face cards. Many different games can be played with a single deck of this type of playing cards. The number of games possible is limited for the most part only by the imagination of the players. Playing cards themselves, individually and collectively, usually have no value other than their amusement value. Additionally, some card games require cards especially printed for the game. Cards of this nature have little value other than their value for the playing of the particular game for which they are printed.
Many games played with playing cards such as the more common face cards are games of chance. Games of chance can have rules that require either the random selection of cards or in some other way depend upon the occurrence of events outside the control of the players. Other games played with cards can require strategy. Strategy games usually limit the level of strategy with restrictive rules of play.
A further type of trading card known in the prior art and currently gaining in popularity is a card that is significantly different from the previous trading cards of the twentieth century. It is a trading card that uses the scarcity of a card as a legitimate basis for collectibility and for the value of the card. However, these trading values are not identifiable to the layman. In the case of these collectible card games cards are sometimes categorized as rare, uncommon, and common. However, these trading values are not identifiable to the layman. This type of card es rapidly gaining in popularity mostly through word of mouth.
However, in the last ten years collectible card games such as these have made a significant impact on both the trading card industry and on the game industry. Collectible card suitable for use in playing games of this nature are also known as fantasy trading cards. At the present time fantasy card games represent fictional characters and situations.
One such game is a fantasy game utilizing figures such as sorcerers and wizards as subject matter. Another such game utilizes a science fiction universe previously created for television and movie entertainment. Fantasy games include cards that are more rare than other cards. However, it is not integral when using the cards which ones may be more rare.
It is also known to provide games that use freely tradable game elements or components, such as trading cards. Furthermore, it is known to provide games that enable a player to form a unique combination of components that competes against the combinations of elements formed by other players.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a card game and a card element wherein the value of the card element as a collector item corresponds to the value of the card element within the card game.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a card that is both a collectible suitable for use in a number of game formats including an educational trivia game, a card game, and a fantasy game.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a card game and a game element wherein the value of a game element as a collectible and the value of the game element in a card game are related to the scarcity of the game element.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a game card element suitable for sale in a starter set of cards as well as in separately sold supplementary or booster sets of cards.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a card wherein a feature identifying the scarcity of the card is a part of a system for identifying the scarcity of the card immediately upon viewing the card without reference to a book, wrapper or prior knowledge of details of game or individual card.
It is a further object of the present invention to associate predetermined fantasy card game elements with real individuals.
A collectible element suitable for use in an educational game having a plurality of collectible elements each having a frequency of occurrence related to the number of occurrences of the collectible element with respect to the number of occurrences of other collectible elements of the plurality of collectible elements is disclosed. The collectible element includes an indicia of the frequency of occurrence of the collectible element disposed upon the collectible element. The collectible elements can be cards and a player of a card game can obtain credit in accordance with the frequency of occurrence including in accordance with skill. Furthermore, the collectible element can set forth a character and a player of the game can obtain credit in accordance with skill in identifying the character. The frequency of occurrence of a collectible element is related to the amount of skill required to identify the character set forth on the collectible element. The character set forth on the collectible element is a real person, preferably a dead person. If the character set forth on the collectible element is a relatively famous person the frequency of occurrence of the collectible element is accordingly relatively high. If the character set forth on the collectible element is a relatively obscure person the frequency of occurrence of the collectible element is accordingly relatively low. The plurality of collectible elements can be a first set of collectible elements obtained together with each other and a second set of collectible elements obtained together with each other and obtained separately from the first set of collectible elements wherein the first and second sets of collectible elements are joined together while substantially maintaining the accuracy of the frequency of occurrence of the collectible elements of the first and second sets of collectible elements.